How companies and brands communicate to their markets is becoming the primary means of differentiation today. Never, in fact, has effective communication been more important in business. And it has increased the pressure within companies to establish environments and attitudes that support the success of creative endeavours, internally and externally. More often than not, companies that value design and their brand lead the pack.
Unlike so much in today’s business world, design is not a commodity. It is the highly individualised result of people working together to do something they couldn’t do alone. When the collaboration is creative, the results usually are too.
Design is about the whole, not the parts. If you wear a £2,500 Armani suit with the wrong pair of shoes, you are apt to be remembered for the shoes and not the suit. Inconsistency raises doubt and doubt makes people wary. This might not matter much if customers didn’t have alternatives, but customers do. And they know it.
The “swoosh” didn’t make Nike a successful company. Nike made the “swoosh” an iconic reflection of a carefully orchestrated approach to the marketplace. (For better or worse, the marketplace is now deluged with “swoosh”-like shapes, identifying companies ranging from sportswear to software). So, how can you get it right for you?
There are three very important stages in getting the most out of design;
1. Briefing
2. Budgeting
3. Business objectives.
The Brief: A design brief is a written explanation given by the client to the designer at the outset of a project. As the client, you are spelling out your objectives and expectations and defining a scope of work when you issue one. You’re also committing to a concrete expression that can be revisited as a project moves forward. It’s an honest way to keep everyone honest. If the brief raises questions, all the better. Questions early are better than questions late.
Another benefit of the design brief is the clarity it provides you as the client about why you’re embarking on a project. If you don’t know why, you can’t possibly hope to achieve anything worthwhile. Nor are you likely to get your company behind your project.
The Budget: If the briefing effort is thorough, budgeting and managing a project is easier. It takes two to budget and manage a design project: the client and the designer. The most successful collaborations are always those where all the information is on the table and expectations are in the open from the outset. Clients often are hesitant to announce how much they have to spend for fear that if they do, the designer will design to that number when a different solution for less money might otherwise have been reached. This is a reasonable concern and yet, it’s as risky to design in a budgetary vacuum as it is to design without a goal. If your motoring budget stops at four cylinders, four gears and a radio, there’s no point in looking at Range Rovers. If you have £100,000 to spend and you’d really like to dedicate £20,000 of it to something else, giving the design team that knowledge helps everyone. Then you won’t get something that costs £110,000 that you want but cannot pay for. Without trust, there isn’t a basis for working together.
The Business objectives: In today’s information-saturated world, where an organisation’s success is determined by the power of its brand, professional designers become even more important in ensuring that companies communicate effectively—an imperative with bottom-line impact. Furthermore, an agency’s ability to execute communications projects efficiently and economically is more critical than ever. They should conduct the necessary research and analysis to create sound communication design with clearly stated goals and objectives. Success should be measured by how well the design meets these objectives.
If you would like to discuss how VGroup’s specialist teams can help you get more out of design, give us a call on 01273 766300 or 020 7734 8855.